Posted on 08/21/2010 6:48:40 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Plus a special guest map from Michael Korda’s, “With Wings Like Eagles,” showing the air defenses of England and Wales, August 1940.
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Isle Leases Urged – 2-3
Nazis Hear Croaking Frog In Speech of Churchill – 3
The International Situation – 3
Text of Prime Minister Churchill’s Speech on War’s Progress and U.S. Defense Plans – 4-6
Nazi Plane Falls on Irish Mountain – 6
R.A.F. Pounds Bases – 7
Single Mass Raid Made on England – 7-8
Refugee Ship Safe, Nazi Envoy Thinks – 8-9
Nazi Invasion of Britain Not Feasible to Moscow – 9
British Admit the Nazis Are Shelling Coast; Doubt Guns’ Accuracy in Bombarding London – 9
Blues Halt Blacks in Up-State ‘War’ – 11-12
Britain’s Air Defense – 13
The Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 14
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/aug40/f21aug40.htm
Trotsky assassinated in Mexico
Wednesday, August 21, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Mexico... Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City. Trotsky has been an enemy of Stalin throughout the latter’s career, and it seems that the assassin has been working on Soviet orders.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/21.htm
August 21st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Enemy operations mainly limited to fighter ‘tip and run’ raids.
Airfields in East Anglia, south and south-west attacked.
A Do17 of KG 3 penetrating Norfolk, is destroyed at Burnham Market by 611 Squadron using the new Spitfire IIs, before another three of the Squadrons Spitfire Is destroy two more Do 17s off Mablethorpe, Lincs.
242 Sqn, down a Do17 near Harlesdon soon after midday and 56 Sqn. claim another near Ipswich.
At RAF Watton in Lincolnshire a Do17Z completes half a circuit before dropping 20 bombs causing neither casualties nor damage. The line of craters is soon filled and the raider was shot down by fighters.
In Southwold three houses are wrecked and in Leicester five die and 13 are injured during the city’s first air raid.
Bombing at St. Eval damaged six 236 Squadron Blenheims.
Convoy CE9 ran the Dover Straits under shell-fire and high-level bombing. Low-level raiders were driven off by intense AA fire and the difficulty of flying through the convoys’ kite-barrage
Losses: Luftwaffe, 14; RAF 1.
GERMANY: U-133 laid down. U-141 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ROMANIA: Bucharest: Bulgarian troops are tonight poised to enter Romanian territory after talks here ended with an agreement to revert to pre-1912 borders. Southern Dobruja, containing the two provinces of Durastor and Caliacra bordering the Black Sea, will be ceded to Bulgaria, and up to 100,000 Romanians moved to their diminishing homeland. Romania has already lost control of Bessarabia to Russia. And Romania’s troubles are not over yet: Hungary is eyeing eagerly the province of Transylvania, in western Romania, and Germany would like access to Romanian oil.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Three Fleet Air Arm Swordfish deliver, arguably, the most interesting torpedo attack of the war. Having been informed of an Italian “depot ship” at An-el-Gazala, three Swordfish of HMS Eagle’s 824 Squadron, FAA, temporarily based at Ma’aten Bagush, are transferred to Sidi Barrani, equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks and torpedoes. In the late-afternoon, the three crews [Capt. O. Patch, RM (p)/Mid. G. J. Woodley, RNVR(o), Lt. N. A. F. Cheeseman, RN(p)/Sub-Lt. F. Stovin-Bradford, RN(o), and Lt. J. W. G. Welham, RN(p)/PO(A) A. H. Marsh(TAG)] headed out on the 180 mile flight to the Gulf of Bomba, routing 30 miles out to sea so as to approach the target from seaward.
Approaching the target, they sighted the Italian Submarine Iride [the mother ship for Italian human torpedoes arriving to attack Alexandria] approaching on the surface. Heading straight for her, Captain Patch released his torpedo, which smacked Iride amidships, sinking her.
Having had no opportunity to attack themselves, the other two continued on the mission assigned. As they approached, they discovered the depot ship [Monte Gargano (1,976 GRT)] with a submarine and a destroyer tied up along side. Both torpedoes ran true into the pack, the resulting explosions “sinking whole bloody lot”. Initially treated with distain when they reported sinking four ships with three torpedoes, the crews were quite exuberant when recon photos the next morning verified that all three in harbour had, in fact, sank, though apparently the destroyer and the submarine were only beached. (Mark Horan)
Submarine HMS Rorqual sank unknown 5000 ton Italian supply ship by torpedo. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEXICO: Leon Trotsky dies from injuries sustained in an ice-pick attack yesterday.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 356 August 21, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 43. Clouds, wind and rain prevent large raids but Luftwaffe continues the tactics of small raids (1-2 aircraft) flying at most 20 miles inland. RAF airfields on the South and Southeast of England are bombed with little damage (2 RAF personnel killed, 40 wounded). Some coastal towns are also bombed (4 civilians killed, 178 wounded) and many merchant ships are sunk or damaged. 13 German bombers are destroyed and 1 RAF Hurricane is shot down.
In the mid-Atlantic 1000 miles off the West coast of Africa, German armed merchant cruiser Widder sinks British collier Anglo Saxon and machineguns the lifeboats (34 crew killed, 7 men escape in one lifeboat). After drifting 2500 miles in 71 days, only 2 survivors make land at Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Widder’s Captain Ruckteschell will be convicted as a War Criminal for this attack in May 1947 (dying in jail in 1948), following the testimony of survivor Able Seaman Robert Tapscott. http://www.amazon.com/All-Brave-Sailors-Sinking-Anglo-Saxon/dp/0743238370
The Anglo Saxon’s Jolly Boat which carried the survivors 2500 miles is preserved at the Mystic Seaport Museum http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/7/anglosaxon/attack.htm
Italian submarine Dandolo damages Dutch tanker Hermes, 200 miles West of Lisbon, Portugal.
Date: 21st August 1940
Enemy action by day
Enemy activity was on a widespread scale and operations were carried out in most instances by single aircraft.
During the period some 200 raids of which one or two plus aircraft were plotted across our East and South Coasts. These raids made short runs inland, seldom penetrating more than 20 miles. Bombs were dropped and reports indicate the main objective of these raids was aerodromes in East Anglia and along the South Coast. The only raid greater than two plus plotted during this period was a raid of six plus which approached a convoy south of the Isle of Wight. A number of these raids were intercepted by our fighters and casualties were inflicted with the loss of one Hurricane (pilot safe) to ourselves.
The main areas of activity were East Anglia and along the South Coast between Dungeness and the Isle of Wight. The Cornish Coast was also visited by several raids and aerodromes were attacked.
Of the thirteen certain casualties inflicted, seven were in the eastern areas between Harwich and Scarborough, four were off the South Coast between the Isle of Wight and Beachy Head and two were off the North Cornish Coast in the St Eval area.
By night
Enemy activity was extremely slight. Four raids were plotted crossing the Sussex coast penetrating to Northolt, South London, Reigate, Maidstone and Weybridge. Further enemy raids, mostly of single aircraft, were plotted off Harwich, Aberdeen, the Humber, Firth of Forth and near Drem.
Small-scale minelaying was suspected from Kinnaird's Head to St Abb's Head, Humber to Yarmouth and Dungeness to Selsey Bill.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 21st August 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
|---|---|---|
| By Fighters | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 1 He111 | 1 Do215 | 1 Do17 |
| 7 Ju88 | 1 Ju88 | 1 He111 |
| 3 Do17 | ||
| 2 Do215 | ||
| 13 | 2 | 2 |
| By Anti-Aircraft | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| - | - | - |
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Air Intelligence Reports
Home Security Reports
________________________________________
Corrigendum to report for 20th August, 1940.
Bircham Newton should read Newton for bombing attack at 0255 hours.
Ping to #4
A bit surprised that you didn’t highlight Trotsky’s injury by his close ‘friend’.
I was sorely tempted to print the whole article, as well as follow-ups on subsequent days. But I have to limit the amount of time I spend on each day at the library if I hope to stay ahead of the calendar and I was running behind. Also I was concerned that my supply of quarters might run out before I reached September 9, my target for the day. (Happily, I made it through September 10.) So those factors and the incident's tangential (at best) connection to the war caused me to pass on the story. I think some later follow ups will make it by dint of their being adjacent war stories.
Looks like someone had an axe to grind with Trotsky.
I noticed Baldwin is going on about those “engine ray” detectors again. Apparently we now know that they use a florescent screen with little green dots.
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